Kimi or Felipe -- Ferrari's Dilemma: Can team Scuderia continue to not have a number one driver?

Throughout the 11 seasons (1996/2006) he raced for Ferrari, Michael Schumacher enjoyed unchallenged status as the team's number 1 driver. Although this arrangement, and the implication of favored status it inferred, was written into the fine print of Schumacher's contract, his towering ability ensured that, for most of the time, he won from the front. In effect, the terms of the contract amounted to nothing more than a formality. In the almost unthinkable event of his car failing under him, then the number 2 Ferrari driver would of course be given the opportunity to go for the win. But the crumbs from Schumacher's Ferrari feasting were sparse. In those 11 years, the German ace amassed 72 victories and five world titles. His three teammates (Eddie Irvine, Rubens Barrichello, and Felipe Massa) picked up just 15 wins between them.Nobody, least of all Ferrari's number 2 drivers, ever suggested Schumacher was being given superior machinery. Since his recruitment in 1996, lavish sponsorship ensured that Scuderia had the resources to build and develop equal-opportunity winning cars for two drivers, and after an initial period of mutual adjustment Scuderia entered the longest period of consistent success it had ever enjoyed. The CEO of Ferrari's racing operations was the Frenchman Jean Todt, vastly experienced and single minded in everything, not least in his devotion to Schumacher.

Certainly nobody ever accused Todt of setting the interests of the sport ahead of Schumacher's ultimate success. Most famously, with less than two laps to go in the Austrian GP in 2002, Todt called up Barrichello on the radio to inform him that he should yield the lead to Schumacher, curiously slow that weekend. The dejected Brazilian lifted off the gas only in the final dash to the line. Even Schumacher was embarrassed by the cynically blatant fix, so much so that he shuffled Barrichello onto the top step of the victory podium. The fans voiced their sense of insult by jeering and whistling their disapproval. After a disciplinary hearing, nobody was punished, although the FIA subsequently imposed a vaguely worded ban on team orders.Mission accomplished, Todt left his post at the end of last year, to be replaced by Stefano Domenicali, a more genial but no less inspirational manager whose background is in engineering rather than politics. At Domenicali's urging, the team has successfully endeavored to show a more human side. Domenicali himself, though suitably reserved when necessary, has been open with the press, in the process healing some of the itchiness Todt had generated. What's more, it also has been made abundantly clear this year the team no longer nominates a number 1 and that Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are free to race each other, on the usual proviso they don't take each other out.

I dont agree with the way that Ferrari was won for so long under Todt. Yes they were pulled up, but is it really racing when one man rules the top team? when other drivers can win only when he cant? Thats why I cant see why people idolize Schumacher so much. He was good yes, but God? No.